History

Analysis of satellite imagery reveals a series of previously unknown Roman military camps from Jordan to North Arabia. They are probably related to the AD 106 Campaign of Trajan which conquered the Nabataean kingdom and constituted the province of Arabia Petraea. https://t.co/KKxPKMPZ9e

— LiorLefineder (@lefineder) October 3, 2026

 

An Insight

“Self-inflicted diesel crisis” in Europe.

— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) October 2, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

The share of children who died before they were 5 years old in 1950 and 75 years later. Africa: 33% ↘ 6% Asia: 25% ↘ 2.5% Oceania: 9.3% ↘ 2% Latin America: 21% ↘ 1.5% Northern America: 3.8% ↘ 0.6% Europe: 10.5% ↘ 0.4% Globally: 23% ↘ 3.5% https://t.co/QMO6XHjp52

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) October 6, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Abdul you're not going to believe this but SpaceX alone made 4,400 millionaires, including welders and cafeteria workers https://t.co/JE48UJL2lB

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) October 2, 2026

 

The Sidonian and the mules

From The World’s Oldest Joke Book, translated and introduced by Professor William Berg.  Philogelos (Ancient Greek: Φιλόγελως, "Love of Laughter") is a Greek-language book published perhaps as early as the 4th century AD.  It is the oldest known surviving collection of jokes.

Joke 128.

A Sidonian prefect was traveling in a carriage. When the mules were exhausted and unable to go any farther, the driver unhitched them so they might graze and rest up a bit. Now, as soon as they were released, they ran off. The prefect said to the driver, ‘Idiot, do you see now that the mules are running just fine, and that it’s the carriage that’s stuck and can’t move?’ 

It is interesting trying to render old jokes from ancient cultures, technologies, and circumstances into a modern equivalent which still leverages the atavistic humorous structure.  As an example, there are a whole series of hernia jokes in Philogelos.  People walking around with visibly obvious hernias are extremely rare in modern societies and yet obviously were somewhat common in the ancient world.  Kind of hard to make that humorous conversion.  

I had a go with both Grok and Gemini on the mule joke and neither was able to come up with anything that was either humorous or a good conversion from ancient conditions to modern.

The best I can come up with is the old aviation joke which I think has the same underlying structure - a confusion about how motion is created.  

A 747 passenger jet is flying from LA to New York when the captain comes on the intercom to announce that one of the engines has failed:

Pilot: "Ladies and gentlemen, we've lost one of our engines. We can still fly fine on the remaining three, but it's going to delay our arrival by a couple of hours."

A little while later, a second engine sputters and dies:

Pilot: "This is your captain again. I'm sorry to report we've lost a second engine. The plane is still safe on two engines, but we'll be delayed by another couple of hours."

A bit later still, a third engine goes out:

Pilot: "Folks, we've just lost our third engine. Don't worry, the aircraft can safely fly on a single engine, though we will be delayed yet again."

At that point, a nervous passenger in first class throws up his hands and yells:

"This is ridiculous! If that last engine goes out, we're going to be stuck up here all day!"

Data Talks

Childhood self-control predicts adult health, wealth, and crime. This holds even after controlling for IQ and family background. Researchers followed about 1,000 children from ages 3–11 into their early 30s. Self-control was rated by parents, teachers, and the children themselves. By age 32, lower childhood self-control predicted worse physical health, more substance dependence, lower income, and higher rates of criminal convictions. Self-control shows significant heritability. One meta-analysis puts the estimate at about 60%, with little or no shared-family-environment effect. These findings are more robust than the single-session marshmallow task, which lacked sufficient controls.

— Hitchslap (@Hitchslap1) October 2, 2026

 

The Orchard Window, 1918 by Daniel Garber

The Orchard Window, 1918 by Daniel Garber (America, 1880-1958) 

Click to enlarge.

The Abderite and the eunuch

From The World’s Oldest Joke Book, translated and introduced by Professor William Berg.  Philogelos (Ancient Greek: Φιλόγελως, "Love of Laughter") is a Greek-language book published perhaps as early as the 4th century AD.  It is the oldest known surviving collection of jokes.

Joke 115

An Abderite sees a eunuch talking with a woman and asks him if she’s his wife. The guy responds that a eunuch is unable to have a wife. ‘Ah, so she’s your daughter?’ 

People from Abdera gained a reputation as simpletons.  An Abderite is simpleton, a fool, an idiot.

Using Gemini and then Grok I converted into a cartoon.

Click to enlarge.

History

This Byzantine necklace was created during the sixth century, when jewellery could express wealth, faith and social identity simultaneously. Its decoration was pierced directly into thin sheets of gold using a technique known as opus interrasile. The result made solid metal appear almost as delicate as lace. Suspended from the necklace is a cross—evidence of how Christian imagery gradually became part of personal dress in Byzantine society. What fascinates me is that the goldsmith removed material to create beauty. The empty spaces are as important as the gold surrounding them. We usually associate value with having more: more gold, more jewels and more decoration. This artist created elegance by carefully taking parts away. Perhaps beauty is not always produced by addition. Sometimes it appears when someone knows exactly what should be removed. Visual: AI-generated historical reconstruction inspired by surviving Byzantine gold necklaces. Authentic source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://t.co/rX3QpnFZ1w

— HerodotusWave (@HerodotusWave) October 3, 2026

 

An Insight

This is one of these things where you get what you think you want (a frictionless life) and then realize you had it all wrong

— Marc Porter Magee 🎓 (@marcportermagee) October 2, 2026